The present disclosure relates to an electrophotographic image forming apparatus.
In general, an electrophotographic image forming apparatus includes a developing portion and a developer supply portion. The developing portion includes a developing roller for supplying developer to an image carrier. The developer supply portion includes a developer conveying portion such as a developer delivering portion which, when rotationally driven, delivers the developer from a supply container storing the developer to the developing portion.
With a configuration where the developer conveying portion operates only when the amount of residual developer in the developing portion satisfies a predetermined supply condition, the amount of developer in the developing portion is maintained appropriately. In this case, it is necessary to cause the developer conveying portion to operate intermittently during the operation of the developing portion.
There is known, for example, a configuration where a clutch mechanism including a planetary gear and an actuator is provided in each of a plurality of developer supply portions. In this configuration, each actuator switches between a transmission and a non-transmission of power from one motor that continuously rotates, to a corresponding developer supply portion.
That is, each of the plurality of clutch mechanisms is switched between a transmission state of transmitting power of one motor (driving source) to the corresponding developer supply portion, and a non-transmission state of not transmitting the power. With such a configuration, it is possible to cause the developer supply portions to operate, independently of each other, intermittently while the motor is continuously rotating.
In addition, with the adoption of the clutch mechanism, the number of rotations of the developer conveying portion becomes proportional to the number of operations of the actuator. As a result, different from the case where the motor is caused to operate intermittently by the time control, it is possible to control the number of rotations of the developer conveying portion with high accuracy even if the rotation speed of the motor varies.